Transnational Humanities Lecture
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Title: "Increasing religious freedom in China: the responsibilities of Christian missionaries and foreign governments"
Lecturer: Barend J. ter Haar (Netherlands Leiden University, Netherlands: Chinese History)
Date : 2010. 5. 27 (Thu) 3:30-5:30 p.m.
Location: HIT Building 615, Hanyang University
Introduction of the lecturer
Barend J. ter Haar is Professor of Chinese history with a strong focus on cultural and religious history. He received his Ph. D. from Leiden University in 1990. He has worked extensively on issues of ethnic identity, violence and fear, and social organization. Since the religious dimension is so central to Chinese traditional life, much of his research up to now has dealt with religious phenomena. An important concern of his is to demonstrate that traditional culture and cultural patterns are still relevant today, for instance in the case of Falun Gong or the ongoing role of exorcist violence in political contexts throughout the twentieth century. Recently he completed Het Hemels Mandaat: De Geschiedenis van het Chinese Keizerrijk (a revisionist Dutch language history of China until 1911; Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009). His other works include: The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), The Ritual and Mythology of the Chinese Triads: Creating an Identity (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1998), and Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006).
Lecture Synopsis
Prof. Barend J. ter Haar will begin his lecture by sketching recent changes (maybe even improvements) in the religious situation in China, including Christianity and new religious movements. Then he will discuss the different responses of Asian (especially Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese) religious traditions and Western traditions to the religious situation in China. The Japanese traditions seem to treat China mainly as the land of origin of their own Buddhist traditions and to devote little attention to spreading their teachings. Taiwanese traditions show different approaches, varying from root-seeking (mainly between Taiwanese temple-cults and their counterparts in Fujian) to secular action (in the case of the Cijitang Buddhists). There is little evidence of active proselytizing. The Korean case seems to be slightly different, although the speaker hopes to learn from his audience more on this. Korean Protestant mission work in Southeast Asia is well-known and the hostage-taking incident of Korean missionaries in Afghanistan a few years ago drew attention from all over the world. In China too, Korean missionaries are active, although mostly among ethnic Koreans in the north. Christian missionaries from the West are also active in China, although the remarkable growth of Protestantism of the last decade is equally the result of indigenous missoin work. The reverse also takes place, for the spread of Tibetan Buddhism throughout mainland China started in the 1930s, is continuing. It has spread to Taiwan and most parts of the Western world as well. Thus, the religious situation in China is closely linked to the rest of the world and this poses risks as well as possibilities about which the speaker wishes to exchange his views with the audience.